Healing is Hard at First

Chapter 12: Christmas Break is About to Begin

A few weeks after the Malfoy incident, things seemed to get better little by little for me. First thing was that I finally mastered Transfiguration, with Hermione's help of course. Now, it was always her or I able to complete the spell first in class. The next exciting news was that I found out I was allowed to stay at Hogwarts for the Christmas holidays. Father wrote to me, saying he had business to take care of amd didn't need me tagging along to mess it up.
Next, I found out that Draco was going home for the holidays, which meant I had a few weeks without having to hear Draco call me runt. The last bit of great news was that Harry and the Weasley children were staying as well. Mr. and Mrs. Weasley and Ginny were going to Romania to visit Charlie, and they only had enough money to bring three people to amd forth, despite my offers to pay for it since Charlie was like a brother to me as well. Mrs. Weasley promised she would send my love to Charlie and wanted us to enjoy the time at Hogwarts, which I was more than happy to do.
The only bad news was that Hermione was going home for the holidays, saying she was missing her parents too much to just stay. I was sad to see her leave but I didn't try to stop her from leaving. I had my boys and that was good enough for me. Neville was leaving too, telling the guys it was because he missed his gram too much to stay longer, but I knew the real reason. He was going to see his parents on Christmas and he didn't want to miss it. He said though I could sleep in his bed since it would just be Harry, Ron, and I in our year in Gryfinndor staying over the holidays.
"Be careful, Nev. Say hi to your gram for me." I said happily, wrapping my arms around him to say goodbye.
"I will be. I will be with Gram, and nothing hardly happens with her." He said assuringly as he hugged me back. "I'm more worried about you."
"Don't worry about me, I've got the Weasleys, Cedric, and Harry keeping me company over the holidays. Plus, Draco won't be here so I should be fine." I spoke cheerfully, a little sad that he was leaving though.
"Happy Christmas, Elle." Neville said softly before he gave me another hug.
"Happy Christmas, Nev." I said softly, kissing the side of his head before he let go. He waved goodbye and took off so he wouldn't be late.
I smiled, watching Neville leave before going over to find the rest of my boys. Sure enough, most of them were in the Great Hall. I walked over to Harry and Ron who were playing Wizard Chess.
"Personally, I rather play muggle chess, I don't have a mess afterwards." I admitted, sitting down next to Harry.
He was losing badly, but that wasn't because he was bad. Ron wasn't good at many things but one thing he beat all his brothers at was Wizard Chess. I knew it wasn't much, but being the youngest boy in a family of nine, you took what you got and ran with it.
"Knight to B5." Ron spoke and crushed Harry's castle.
"That's barbaric." Hermione spoke, obviously never seeing Wizard Chess before.
"That's Wizard Chess. I see you've packed." Ron said, commenting on Hermione had her trunk with her.
"Yes I am, now while I'm away I want you to.." Hermione started but Harry and I interrupted her.
"Look in the library for Nicholas Flamel."
"Where? We've checked the library at least a dozen times." Ron groaned, not wanting to spend his holiday in the library.
"Not in the restricted section. Happy Christmas." Hermione said, heading towards the Entrance Hall.
Nicolas Flamel was harder to find than we originally thought. That might make Hagrid feel better about accidentally letting that slip out to Hermione, Ron, and Harry after the quiditch match. I was wracking my brain, curious if Father would have any books back at home that could help us. I couldn't owl him about it, he would probably think I was being obnoxious and just ignore the letter entirely. While I was thinking about who Nicolas Flamel is, Harry and Ron were looking at me funny for some reason.
"..can I help you boys?" I asked, unsure why they were looking at me like that.
"I thought you were going home for holidays. Shouldn't you be packing your stuff and join Hermione?" Ron asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Dad had urgent matters to take care of. He didn't want to spoil my Christmas so he thought it would be best for me to stay at Hogwarts." I lied quickly, hoping Ron wouldn't pick up on the lie.
I highly doubt Father truly had urgent matters, he probably just didn't want to see me at home unless he absolutely had to. He probably just put that in the letter in case got the letter instead. It would make him seem like the loving parent that has been absent for six years. I shook off my thoughts quickly and laid my head on Harry's shoulder.
"You can join Ron and I in the boys dormitory if you want, Ellie. It's just the two of us, Neville, Dean, and Seamus all went home." Harry offered, looking over at Ron to confirm that I was wanted there.
"Oh yeah, totally," Ron said with a big grin, "We will just figure out where you'll be sleeping."
"Oh, Neville figured you would invite me so he said if you did, I could use his bed." I said with a smile.
I was glad to know that I was wanted somewhere, even if it wasn't in my own home. I was just glad to be able to experience my first Christmas away from home with my family. My real family, not the one connected by blood.
"Wicked." Harry and Ron said at the same time.
"Wicked indeed boys.. wicked indeed." I said, my hazel eyes sparkling with excitement for Christmas to come.
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Another chapter done :) this is so grand :) I'm sorry if I'm moving through this book faster than what some may like, I just want to get to the other books that I know better and have great ideas for :) btw I'm sure someone has noticed I decided to change the eye color of Ellie, there is a reason for that but you don't get to know until much much later in the series :P but you can guess why and if you get it correct, I will recommend you in a future chapter :) just once you say it, and i reommend you, please don't spoil it for others :) like I won't make it clear that you got it right so, keep others in mind :) okay got to go :) DFTBA my nerdy friends :)